Holiday airfare in 2026 is at a 10-year high, and travellers who have not booked yet are running out of time to avoid the worst prices. According to Hopper data reported by Travel Noire on October 8, airfare for holiday trips is up 31% for Thanksgiving and 23% for Christmas compared with last year, driven in part by jet fuel price increases related to the Iran war. Hopper’s advice is blunt: book Thanksgiving and Christmas travel before Halloween, because prices will only increase as travel dates approach and flights and hotels begin to fill up. The report notes travellers have been booking earlier this year to offset higher costs, and avoiding the most expensive days can save more than waiting for a last-minute drop — which, in a high-fuel year, rarely arrives. AAA issued a similar warning on September 15, urging Americans to secure Thanksgiving and year-end flights as soon as possible, with domestic airfares for Thanksgiving and Christmas running between 9% and 18% higher than last year on AAA’s measure, according to PureTravel’s summary. AAA found 47% of surveyed travellers cite budget concerns as their main reason for waiting — yet 42% of travellers who delayed booking in past years ended up paying higher fares.
The most expensive days to avoid
For Thanksgiving, avoid Sunday, November 29, for travel, and for Christmas avoid the weekend of December 18-20, according to Hopper’s guidance. TravelPulse’s holiday cheat sheet, drawing on similar fare data, puts the priciest Thanksgiving departure at November 20 and the priciest Christmas departure at December 19 — the Friday before each holiday weekend, when demand peaks. If you must travel on a peak day, consider a different airport, a connecting flight, or a Thanksgiving Day departure itself, which is typically one of the quietest and cheapest travel days. The savings from shifting by even two or three days can exceed any discount from waiting another week to book.
How to offset the increase
Use travel credit-card points, airline miles, and rewards where you have them — Hopper specifically recommends it for this season — and book flexible, refundable options where the price difference is small, so a plan change does not wipe out the fare entirely. Check the total trip cost, not just the flight: a cheaper flight that forces an expensive rental car or an extra hotel night is not cheaper. And set a fare alert now if you have not booked: in a rising market, an alert that fires on a dip is worth more than daily manual searching.
